Upgrade advice ...

From: Craig Morgan <C.Morgan_at_soc.staffs.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 15:26:54 +0000

Hi all,
        I'm after a little upgrade advice, basically regarding expansion of
a current AlphaServer 2100 4/200 with one CPU and 128Mb RAM. The box is
currently installed as a departmental server (next to no significant
downtime for 18 months), but a few parameters are getting tight, ie. disk
space, memory and CPU, in that relative order.

        The system currently has a SWXCR RAID array (3 channel) and 1
internal and 1 external StorageWorks enclosure, populated with mulitple 2Gb
drives, mostly running JBOD.

        The steps for upgrade are:

        1) As much storage as possible in budget (ie. approx 16Gb+) hopefully
            running at RAID 5. Does anyone have experience of installing
            misc. drives (ie. 4/9Gb) into SW carriers. What should I look
            out for ie. fast/wide/etc, DEC prices (even on 5 packs) are
            inordinately steep ...

        2) Memory upgrade to 256Mb, ie. at least 128Mb upgrade, does any 3rd
            party memory suit, possibly Kingston, etc. Any opinions ...

        3) Potential CPU upgrade, are DEC still offering 200Mhz Alpha chips
            or is the upgrade a two processor switch for us.

        Any pointers, especially regarding the storage situation will be
much appreciated. Are the StorageWorks caddies now easily available given
that SW is cross-platform for instance.

PS. Any gotcha's relating to DU 4.0 upgrades and the above would be
appreciated as thats the next significant upgrade for us (we're currently
at OSF/1 v3.2a!

--
Craig
                            ,,,   Wot, NO mountains!
 ======================oOO=(o o)=OOo===================================
  Craig Morgan              (_)      Senior Lecturer, CS Group
  School of Computing                Email: C.Morgan_at_soc.staffs.ac.uk
  Staffordshire University           Phone: +44 (0)1785 353466
  Beaconside                         Fax:   +44 (0)1785 353497
  Stafford, UK  ST18 0DG             Pager: +44 (0)839 453754
  "It's the downhill thrills, that make the uphill slog worthwhile..."
 ======================================================================
Received on Tue Jun 04 1996 - 17:02:17 NZST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed Nov 08 2023 - 11:53:46 NZDT